Love in the Line of Duty xFormally True Love x
by x-angelicism-x
Summary: R&R Chapter8 & 9 up after a lonnng while. Sorry! All characters present but mainly Danny centered as always
1. The Beginning

**Disclaimer:** _I own none of the original cast of WaT – If I did, Enrique would be my real-life sex toy, and I wouldn't have to revert to fan-fic __, however the characters 'Katinka Hunter' and 'Louise Palmer' belong to me, I created them and I would prefer if it you don't steal_! _Please.

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_**True Love**…?_

The buzzing protruded her dreams; she slowly lifted her arm and thrashed at the offending sound. She missed. She slowly aimed again, lifting her head as she gave force to the slight tap of her hand. She gave a small roll of the body and SLAP.

The noise stopped.

She rolled back into the comfortable space she had been in before the alarm had buzzed her into consciousness, back into the arms of the man that lay beside her. She smiled to herself and licked her lips. She heard him moan and begin to roll over in the opposite direction. She knew what was coming next. First he would roll over so that his back would be against hers then he would realise that he wasn't alone and he would roll back over – give her a slight hug and slowly roll on top of her. Morning sessions were becoming scarce of late. Both of them had lots of work to do and this week alone they had barely had chance to say morning before rushing off in opposite directions of the city only, in effect, to end up at the same place.

* * *

Danny felt her roll over to turn the alarm off, he knew she'd miss from the first swipe she took – she always did, she hated having to move to turn the alarm off and so each morning she would always make a futile attempt to turn the alarm off without having to move from the comfort zone.

"_Maybe I should move the alarm to my side of the bed"_ He mused to himself.

He felt her slowly rolling back into his arm. He couldn't face waking up just yet. Waking up fully meant it was time to lose the connection.

Time to pretend nothing was going on between them.

Time to pretend he didn't love her.

* * *

To fully understand what's going on you need to go back a month.

_**A month prior to that morning**_

"That was a tough case, wasn't it, " Martin stated firmly to Danny.

"No tougher than most, when you think about it. In actual fact the only real aspect of it being tougher was the fact that it was a child that went missing. That and your shooting, of course."

Just as Martin was about to reply their superior walked in closely followed by two slender women. Both of the woman were dressed in black trouser suits, they both looked professional and by no means did either of them look like a victim or a relation to someone that had gone missing - they didn't look like it, but it was possible. One of the women was young; Danny guessed that she was around her mid-20's, she has long reddish-brown hair that was worn lose. She appeared to have long legs, but if there was something he had learnt – it was that women could make their legs look long when in reality they could only be 2 foot tall! The other woman appeared to be in her mid 30's if she was a day, she wore wire glasses that made her look very studious indeed, like the woman accompanying her, her hair was reddish-brown – however, Danny suspected _her _colour was in fact fake unlike the other woman. She too wore her hair down but it was much shorter than the first woman.

After his initial assessment of them Danny didn't even want to contemplate what brought them to the Missing Person Unit of the FBI office. Sure they didn't look like they needed help but looks could be very deceiving-, as he knew with first hand experience. If he'd looked closer he probably would of ended these thoughts the moment they began, both women were wearing FBI identification and just as they looked professional – they also acted it.

But as he knew, looking for the obvious sometimes didn't help until the last minute.

"_Danny?"_

What was that? –

"_Yeah?" _He looked up and noticed that all eyes in the office were on him, he had been staring at the previous location of Jack and the two women for what appeared to be only seconds but in actual fact had been five minutes. All of the team were now sat around the large conference table … well almost all of the team.

Danny got up and rushed over to the table. God he needed sleep. Fast.

As Danny sat down at the table Jack gave him an inquiring look. One that seemed to be asking him "_what's up?_"

Jack cleared his throat and gestured towards the two women now sat beside him.

"_Right, now we are all awake…"_

The younger woman laughed out loud.

Jack started again.

"_Right allow me to introduce two of our fellow agents from the Immigration department. This …" _He pointed at the younger woman_ "…this is Special Agent Katinka Hunter, I'll tell you now before she speaks, she **is **British – but we won't hold that against her – I'm sure, and this _he pointed at the older woman _is Special Agent Louise Palmer. Both are joining our team here but will be working on the many cases they have with their own department. Right now they are here to help keep the Lopez family in the USA and so will be using all known data we collected during that case. I'm sure I don't have to tell you to be as co-operative as possible – do I?" _Jack looked around his team, a small smile playing on his lips.

Danny could tell he was enjoying being in control – not that he wasn't always in control but at this moment in time, the 'new' members of the team were seeing 'boss' Jack.

"_How soon that will change,"_ thought Danny.

Jack stood up, the two women followed suit. He pointed at Agent Hunter and requested she join him in his office, Jack then looked in Danny's direction, pointed at his office and just stated

"_Follow me"_

"_What now… more paperwork? Show them about? He didn't have time to be tour guide to some British international…"_

He wondered softly to himself about the jobs that were about to be handed out to him in that office.

* * *


	2. Sparks

**A/N: **Sorry it's taken so long to add more, I've had assignments and presentations at uni hope it's O.K ... please review and thanks for the reviews so far :-) Must add, none of the original characters are mine (I can only dream, and I do!

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"…_more than 3 years?" _Agent Hunter was questioning Jack as Danny entered the office, he assumed that she was asking about the Lopez Family but he couldn't be sure and so waiting for Jack to signal for him to join in the conversation.

Jack turned to Danny.

"_Danny meet Katinka Hunter, Katinka meet Danny Taylor. One of my best agents!"_

Danny smiled, "_You must be losing it Jack, we met already – outside in the bullpen, but I'm always happy to be introduced again"_

"I know you've met, I just thought it wise to introduce you two face to face since Agent Hunter will be taking over your case notes for the Lopez family. I don't want any issues to arise and especially since you were the main go between the family and the F.B.I."

Danny appeared to blush,_ "Yeah, yeah Jack, I understand…anyway, since I now understand the question, I'll answer for you Agent Hunter – "_

"_Please, call me Kat, or if you really feel the need to Katinka, Agent Hunter's so formal!" Katinka interrupted. _

"_Right, Kat, again to answer the question, the family have been in the USA since March 1999. They have four children, three of whom were born here and they all attend local public schools. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lopez have steady jobs, they appeared to be paying taxes, however this did become apparent that it was the smuggler taking a large sum of their salaries to fool the family into thinking they were legal. It was only after their youngest daughter went missing that they realised they were in fact aliens in this country."_

"_Mrs Lopez is currently 3 months pregnant with another child also," _Jack added.

"_Right, good." _Kat mentally noted all the facts the pair had given her within the last minute and half.

"_I'll just need to look at their files, but to be honest they've been here so long, have kids and believed they were legal – they have kids in public school thought they were paying tax – but you can vouch for that – I can't see, them being deported, but hey, I'm not the be all and end all, I hope I can build up a case strong enough to help them as much as possible and with your testimonies I can only see good things happening." _She smiled at the two men and crossed her fingers to show them that she really did hope luck was on her side.

Danny smiled too, "_Great, I'll help wherever it's needed"_

"_Hmm, to be honest Agent Taylor; myself and Lou will be fine from here on in as long as we just have the notes, I hate to step on your toes and I understand that you've worked on this case a lot but… well there really is nothing else you can do, I talk fluent Spanish and therefore you wouldn't even be needed as an interpreter_," Kat really hoped she wasn't stepping on his toes; she knew only too well what it could be like to have a case pulled from underneath you. She really wouldn't mind his help but… well what could she do? With Lou it should all be dusted by Monday, if not sooner- there really wouldn't be anything for him.

She looked at him, offered an encouraging smile, "_but believe me I will keep you posted, and if there is anything you could help me on, you **will** be my first port of call, that you can count on!"_

Danny looked mad_, "Right well, I'll get back to work, shall I_"? He looked from Jack to Kat, shook his head and walked out.

* * *

Kat looked at Jack and shrugged her shoulders.

"_Don't worry about him, the Lopez family were kind of a personal case, we all get them from time to time, I'm certain you have had a fair few too, he'll come around and deep down he knows that this is your job but for now he just feels like I've pulled him from something he wanted to finish. I'll talk to him". _Jack reassured his new agent, and thought to himself how she may be young but how far she'd gotten in the short amount of time since she had graduated, top of her class, from Oxford only four years prior.

"I really hope so Jack, I'd hate to have made an enemy on my first day here, especially an enemy of the main agent related to the case I'm taking over" Kat replied as she walked out of Jacks office.

Within a minute Kat was stood next to Danny's desk – she looked up and down the corridor trying to find Danny but he was nowhere in sight. She looked on his desk and saw a manilla folder labelled "Lopez 2004" she looked around again for Danny, he was still nowhere in sight. So she picked the file up and began to read it. Again the facts that both Danny and Jack had given her earlier were evident within the first few paragraphs. She looked at the writing and wondered who had written it – it appeared to be like a spider had run across the page and left imprints on the page, or even to be childlike, either was feasible.

Out of nowhere a distinctive voice boomed from behind her, "_What the hell do you think you're doing?"_

She jumped.

She hated what that happened, she pasted a fake '_all is well'_ smile on her face and turned.

"_Hi Danny, sorry, I did look for you – twice actually – but you were nowhere to be seen, so I thought I'd get on with my work and review your notes. I hope you don't mind, I knew you wouldn't." _She began to walk away.

"_Agent Hunter?"_

Kat pulled a face, hadn't she already told him? Insisted even? …_ "Danny?"_

"_My notes?"Danny pointed at the file in Kat's hands_

"_Well y'see Jack told you that I'd need your notes – I even mentioned it myself whilst we were in the office, I assumed that was why it was on your desk? …Actually I was wondering if you had any more? You should, I'm sure Jack said there was almost four? I could do with them to be honest I really want to start processing this case and the only way to do that is to use the notes linked to the missing case, Judges love sympathy – they say they don't but they do… so anytime you're ready – I'll be over there." _

She began to walk over to her colleague just as Danny began to walk in front of her to get to his desk and they bumped into each other. Danny dived out of the way and went straight to his top draw.

"_Shit" _He swore to himself

Kat pulled a face as she rushed over to her seat and sat across from Lou. She turned her head to look at him, He was hunched over his task counting manilla files – he looked pissed.

"_Man, who in their right mind gets annoyed at someone because they have to give their notes to another federal agent?"_ She whispered quietly to herself.

She quickly looked back towards the notes in front of her as she saw him begin to rise; she could hear him walking over towards herand felt him place a pile of files beside her as he firmly stated, "_I want them back – I still haven't finished with them"_

He walked off just as Kat called back after him_, "Sure, when I'm done"_

Lou smiled and tried hard not to giggle. Kat shot her a stare and asked "_What?"_

"_I'm saying nothing, not a word!" _came the reply between snorts.

_

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	3. Two sides of a story

**Disclaimer**: I own nothing but my own thoughts – and at times I think they rule me: **cry**.

**Author's Note**: Sorry it's taken me so long to update but I've been busy – on teaching practice and at uni and Christmas and New year celebrations. Hope you all had a great time, also I'm sorry for all the italics for when the characters spoke in previous chapters, I'm just so used to doing that for quotes in assignments etc.

Happy reading!

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As the afternoon progressed, Danny found himself questioning the reason why Kat had pissed him off so much. He had also begun to notice that at times he would find himself looking towards where she sat, with her back facing him. 

He noticed how she had begun to laugh and that annoyed him even more – She was working on his case, a case that was extremely important and yet she was wasting time laughing and joking with her colleague.

He took a deep breath and looked back to his work at hand, and he suddenly realised that he had read the same sentence almost six times and yet he was no closer in understanding the meaning. He looked back at where the two new members of the team were sat and noticed how Samantha had joined their talk. He remembered the time Sam had first joined the team and instantly knew what was going to happen; she was going to offer to take them to lunch and buy them coffee. He knew Sam's philosophy that as an F.B.I agent you need to know for sure that your team has your back and unless you have somehow made a personal introduction and had got to know your team there was no sure fire way of knowing if they did indeed 'have your back'.

Again, Danny went back to his work which meant he once again reread the sentence that he had been working on for what appeared to be hours, but he was still no closer to understanding it's meaning. In frustration he looked up just in time to see Sam and Kat walking towards the elevators. He noticed how her colleague was still sat with her head in her notes, however as he was looking over towards her, Lou raised her head and looked directly at Danny. She smiled at him and Danny gave in. He wasn't working anyway. He agreed that his body was telling him to take a break and so he stood up and walked over to introduce himself to his new colleague.

* * *

As Lou's giggles subsided, Kat agreed silently to herself that Danny Taylor was cute but _he _appeared to know it just as much as everybody else. Kat knew what Lou was getting at too; she had only recently given up on trying to get her to date 'some nice local guys' because she felt Kat needed a guy that was a lot closer than Canada. The on-off thing that she had with Riley was not only beginning to annoy Lou but had almost caused them to have many major disagreements over the past three months. And so it had become Lou's pet project to ensure that Kat began to see the benefits in having a long-term local partner. 

Kat thought back to the night before, when Lou had been arguing, well as she put it discussing, these benefits at the dinner table along with her husband Joe and another couple that Lou and Kat had worked with in the Immigration department. She looked back towards Danny Taylor, who appeared to have his head in his hands, and she knew that Agent Taylor had presented himself to Lou Palmer as a challenge. If only he knew what a hound she was.

She lifted her pen off the paper and looked down towards the notes she was making on the case in hand; as she read over Taylor's handwriting all her thoughts turned to Riley. She started mentally weighing up the pros and cons of having an unavailable guy that lived miles away when she knew she could go down to any club on a Saturday night and have the pick of the bunch – how often she was reminded of this by her many friends, who all seemed to despise Riley as much as Lou.

But then she thought back to when that relationship had started, she'd never intentionally begun a relationship that was based on the guys needs, at the beginning it had been the start of something promising, she hadn't known he lived in Canada since she had met him at a friends party in the middle of NYC, and he'd had a British accent too so it wasn't as easy to place in the grand scheme of things, all she had known was that he didn't live in the UK anymore and that he was a Financial Advisor.

She remembered how hot their relationship was at the start and how she had thought he was the one for so long but then the phone calls had become less frequent and eventually he had admitted to her that he was only ever in New York City when his clients asked to see him in person, when he was flying through to go back to England or when he wanted to do some real shopping. There had been some time between their communications, but during the following Christmas festivities they met up again at a mutual friends party and this began the reblossoming of their relationship.

For the past year herself and Riley had been taking it in turns to visit each other until a little over two months ago Riley had told her that he thought he should visit her in NYC, so as to save her coming up to Canada for the weekends. When she had told Lou this her response had been that he was seeing someone else, at the time Kat remembered how much she had refused to believe it – but thinking back what other explanation could there be? When she had called his place and one of his many friends had answered they all appeared to be off hand with her, and when she asked for Riley they spoke in hushed tones amongst their selves as if finding out what his excuse was this time.

The last time she had seen him, just last week, he had been rushing through Times Square talking quietly into his cell phone and he hadn't even appeared to recognise her when she had waved in his face. For the rest of that week she had been at breaking point. Lou had said she appeared to be as emotionally stable as a wonky as a one legged stool, and had told this to Riley himself when she had contacted him.

Shaking herself and coming back to reality, Kat looked down at her notebook. She noticed how she had drawn two columns on a clean page and had written at the top of each of them 'Pro' and 'Con'. She wrote into each column in turn and when she had finished she realised she had a lot more con's than pros on the page – towards the end it had been hard to actually find good things to put on the page, at this moment she realised that Lou had appeared to have been watching her for some time. She lifted her head fully, coughed and released a long deep breath. A smile spread across Lou's face and at that point in time she guessed what was coming out of the mouth.

"Can I call him and read that list to him, or better yet can I fly there and read it to him. I'd love to see the look on his face when he realises you're not under his spell any longer!"

Kat stared at Lou; she hadn't expected that. She'd just expected a whiney – 'I told you so', and so she laughed and tutted, throwing back a fast, "as if"

"Never mind, I was right!"

Kat laughed – she knew Lou would say it eventually. Both of the two women looked up as the blond haired agent walked towards them. She introduced herself as Samantha Spade and went on to ask if either of them would like to join her for lunch or just even just a coffee, Lou refused apologetically stating that she had to leave early to take her son to the doctors and so was going to work through lunch to make herself feel better, whereas Kat jumped at the chance to get to know Sam.

Kat stood up, picked up her small leather bound notebook and announced that she was famished. She smiled at Lou and wished her a happy lunch and walked towards the elevators chatting away to the blond haired agent as if she were Sam's oldest friend.

Only moments later did Danny stand in front of Lou smiling, she offered him a seat at the table and he offered her a coffee.


	4. Lunch time

**Disclaimer:** _I own none of the original cast of WaT – I still claim that if I did, Enrique would be mine, however all other characters belong to me, I created them._

_Ohh if some things seem far fetched I claim authors intent… some things I'm not sure about and thought they sounded good. _

**Authors Note: **Sorry it's been a while… Yet again real life drama has interrupted my creativity. I know that its taking ages for the story to unfold and that we are still on the first day even though in real time months has passed, and I promise you I will try to update more – I have two weeks off from Wednesday, so I should – hopefully – be able to get a lot more done… That being said – I do know what's going to happen with the story – I have a case for them, also – I just need to find the time to type it all up.

Gold… You'll see what's happening and Anya – thanks for the review – I know I use loads of them – its from working with kids I try to make things more simple – will try harder from now on :-)

* * *

"Hi", Danny smiled at Lou.

"Danny … right?" Lou held up his notes as if she were asking him if he were responsible for them.

"Er… yeah – That's me, guilty as charged" Danny threw Lou one of his killer smiles. He wanted to get to know her, just like Sam he believed you had to trust your team… and these people were new so he needed to get to know them to be able to trust them. Sure he'd grown up having trust issues – be he knew that without trust this team wouldn't be able to go out every day saving lives. It's what they do for a living so trust NEEDED to be there.

"Well, I'm Lou…" He caught what the woman had said and noticed that she had her hand held out – Danny embraced it and shook. Still smiling and enquired enthusiastically how her day was going.

"Well it's certainly been an interesting new day,"

Danny looked to where Kat would have been sitting if she hadn't gone to lunch and merely replied that it sure had, and that he thought it was only going to get better.

Lou noticed and tried to make peace, "Kat has her way of doing things… and she likes things to be done her way. She just … well… you know … likes things to be perfect. Not that your notes aren't perfect!"

Danny once again laughed, he realised he liked Lou, she was loyal to her friends but would also commiserate with the people she thought her friends might have upset and so he told her the truth. "It's not Kat… it's me. I guess I expected to be part of the case to the end. Even though I know my part of the case… finding the kid… was already over even before you guys came here, so if anyone should be apologising it's me."

Sat opposite him, Lou chuckled; Danny hadn't expected that and so he looked at her face. Lou tried to stop laughing and looked at him seriously, "it's just that I know someone like that myself… and well… I can't believe how much you just reminded me of her."

Sheepishly Danny smiled, Lou mentally shook herself and reminded herself that she was happily married. Not that she needed much convincing sure she liked good looking men, but she was still seriously head-over-heels in love with her husband, and had been since she'd first laid eyes up on him 10 years previously… but good looking men like Danny Taylor could still make her think "what if…"

Danny watched Lou as she shook her head, and looked down to the table, he noticed that she was still writing up notes and so excused himself and stood up, quickly Lou replied.

"No, there's no need to go.

Danny pointed at her work, "I'd hate to interrupt"

"Interrupt? Note taking? It's not possible – trust me, and besides I always try to work though lunch hour – it makes me feel like I can legitimately leave an hour earlier and so be home in time to, at least, put my kids to bed and read them a page of a book… so I think it's about time I had one lunch time off… don't you?"

At this Danny sat back down and drawled, "Well I'm sure happy to be your interruption"

Over the next hour Danny and Lou sat and chatted continuously about everything: her kids, husband…even cooking. It seemed that Lou knew loads of Spanish dishes and would ask Danny if he cooked them also.

Danny begun to realise how much Lou reminded him of Viv, both women were older and very maternal but it was still evident that both women loved their jobs and enjoyed coming into it daily.

By the time Sam and Kat had returned, that afternoon, Danny had got to know about the majority of Lou's life, he considered it to be a part of his job to observe those around him and Lou had – like many other women before her – given him the opportunity to get to know her without giving out many details about himself. Just the way he liked it.

For the rest of their first day Lou and Kat sat at the conference table within the bullpen, finishing up the case they were preparing to hand to the DA that afternoon. When 2PM arrived both women, cleaned up the table and stood up and made their way towards the elevators. Stopping only once to hand Danny his notes back before continuing on their way.

* * *

**(That Same day: In the lift)**

"What a day!" complained Kat.

"HA! – You had lunch and you've finished for the day... I've got to go over to the school for Josh's play and from there, take to Jake Dr Mitch's. Consider yourself lucky you don't have kids." Retorted Lou playfully.

"Finished? I'd gladly take Jake to the Doctors, just as long as I don't have to go talk Michael's into accepting this case so late in the afternoon" mumbled Kat – knowing that Lou would know why she didn't want to be alone with Michael's.

Lou took a deep breath, pretending that she was thinking about the idea proposed… but smiled and shook her head, "Hmm – it's very tempting, I'm sure it would be a great idea for me to go to the DAs office… but damn … you know a mothers duty is never over"

Kat pulled a face and considered pulling rank, but knew she never would. Lou had been a great friend to her... not only since she'd been partnered with her in their last place of work but also since she'd come to the USA. She knew that she'd never deny her the chance to be with her kids or watch little Josh be a mouse in his second grade performance – she just liked to think that she had the guts to make it happen.

As they reached the ground floor Lou gave a little cough, they hadn't talked about lunchtime, and Lou knew that Kat had been a little shocked to see her sitting with Danny when she had come back. She wondered if she could make some slight comment. She slyly looked at Kat from the corner of her eye as they exited the lift into the basement car park and again coughed.

"So, Danny seemed like a nice guy – and his notes were rather helpful – right?" She noticed how Kat had almost frozen when she'd mentioned Danny and smirked.

Kat busied herself with putting her bag on the floor and throwing her coat around her shoulders. Once the task was completed Kat took her time to root through her bag for her car keys. Wishing Lou would drop the subject but she tried again,

"Do you think he's always that nice or just one of those 'first day helpful people'?" Lou desperately wanted Kat to respond. She was sure she'd seen sparks from the two of them and she just wanted to make sure she wasn't losing her touch.

Kat threw a careless "sure, I guess he's ok I better run though... you know how I hate to be stuck in traffic and since its after 2, New York is sure to be car park." over her shoulder as she ran towards the safety of her sleek black car.

Lou hollered after her, "I'll call you later" and Kat knew it wasn't over.


	5. Small Spaces

**Author's note**: Second helping for today – I couldn't stop typing tell me if it sucks, because I didn't plan this bit... its spontaneous! (I couldn't remember what floor the SUV: Missing Person Unit were on, so I made it the 11th… if I'm wrong leave me a comment and I'll change it)

* * *

As Kat sat in her car her mind reeled. She'd never before been so confused. Danny had been sending off sparks from the moment she'd walked into the office, only a few hours earlier, and yet he'd been so hostile. Sure she couldn't blame him, he'd been pulled of a case, but did he need to make her feel so uncomfortable. 

Kat put her car into gear and steered out of the car park, waving at Lou as she passed her. Lou had seemed so intent on getting a reaction from her about Danny – but she didn't know what to say. She was afraid she might have said something incriminating if she'd stayed there much longer – and so she'd ran. She'd run from her best friend over a guy she'd met a few hours earlier. How mental was that?

As she got out into the sunlight she noticed the traffic building up. "Great", she thought bitterly, "Just what I need, to be stuck in a pile of SUV soccer moms".

Her mind returned to mulling over the day, and especially the lunch she'd shared with Sam. She too seemed to have noticed Danny's mood. But had taken it to be due to the fact he'd been pulled off a case – what had she said?

…

_"Ohh Danny? He's just a tad protective I'm sure it's nothing personal – trust me"_

…

Sure, and the fact that Kat had been the one put in charge? If it had been her she knew she'd have felt the same but she also knew she wouldn't have made the new person feel like crap…or at least she hoped she wouldn't. She decided to never find out.

Kat was suddenly brought back to reality when horns started blaring and people were screaming from their car windows, she'd been holding people up – she'd been holding herself up.

Damn him she thought, he was ruining everything – without even knowing it.

**(The next morning)**

The next morning Kat met Danny waiting for the lift and wondered if she should try to make amends for everything that had happened the day before, before she had chance to open her mouth the lift arrived and they both entered. They both put their hands out to press the button and as they both pressed they realised that they were touching hands, as if they were in shock, they appeared to hold them there for a while and slowly Kat moved her head to look at his face, she quickly pulled her hand back and mumbled a soft "sorry".

As if he hadn't realised that it was in fact Kat in the lift with him he did a double take and rushed to get his words out.

"Sorry? Er, there's no need … I wasn't concentrating…my mind was elsewhere… sorry."

Danny looked down at the floor and tried to avoid looking at her, mentally cursing himself for not being more observant and for thinking about the sparks that had been flying around the lift since they had touched. He became aware of the door opening and someone stepping into the lift from the second floor. He wondered if he should get off and take the stairs for the rest of the journey – or if that would seem rude. The newcomer looked at Kat and Danny and smiled, and Danny knew that they were probably thinking that the two of them had just jumped apart, maybe they had? He couldn't remember if he moved after he had moved his hand from the button, he looked over to Kat. She was staring at something in her hand, he was sure her face was red but he couldn't be sure. The lights in the lift tended to make people look different.

Kat kept staring at the paper, she knew Danny was looking at her; she could feel it. She'd been cursing herself for even taking a look at him while she knew his hand was on hers, she should of just pulled it away. Why hadn't she – why had she even gone to press the button? She knew Danny was closer and they both needed the same floor, so there had been no need to even make an attempt to touch the buttons. She wondered what he was thinking – she could guess it was probably all down to her again.

She cleared her throat and looked at the person who had got on at the second floor, the journey seemed to be taking forever. She smiled at Danny and wondered if he would think it was rude if she got off at the next floor. Before she had chance to think about it Danny asked her a question, she looked at him as if she was shocked and tried to remember what the question was. He was making her feel like she had just met her favourite actor and her mind kept going blank. She gave up trying to think about the question and replied with a casual "Excuse me?" hoping that he thought she'd been engrossed within the paper she was holding"

Danny looked at her again, it had been hard enough trying to think of something to break the silence before and yet he was having to ask again, he knew the woman from the second floor was loving this, was probably going to go back to her own floor and gossip about "those upstairs" … but he didn't really care. Nothing had happened. He tried to remember what he'd asked.

He finally remembered, "Did the DA accept the case last night?"

"Ohh, that, yeah, said the case seemed solid, I just had to make sure he kept his mind on the case", Kat went white. Why had she said that? Why oh why! She needed to keep her mouth shut.

She tensely looked at Danny and wondered what he was thinking; her voice caught in her throat as she noticed what he was wearing: a dark black suit with a pale blue shirt and deeper blue tie. He looked more like he was going out for dinner than getting read to search for missing people.

He looked at her and wondered what to say to her last comment; thankfully Second floor woman chimed in, "Ohh Michael's? Yeah I'd noticed since he broke up with his wife that he was more intent on grabbing a date than a case…"

She looked from Danny to Kat again, and blushed, "Er, sorry, I didn't mean to cut in". She quickly looked down to the floor and escaped as soon as the lift stopped.

Again they were alone. She noticed that they were still only at the 6th floor, still another five to go, and the lift appeared to be going slow. She tried to think of something to break the silence. But she realised that Danny was wearing Calvin Klein's Crave fragrance, and it was more intent on breaking her senses, he seemed to be unconsciously trying to unnerve her, again – she hoped – without knowing. She started to tap her foot hoping that the lift would hurry up – she was suddenly becoming closterphobic with Danny stood next to her, he seemed to be mentally getting closer and with each second that passed his scent was getting stronger. She cleared her throat again, and asked him if they often had days go without cases, she knew she sounded strange and hoped that he would answer seriously, but as he opened his mouth to reply the bell binged and they found their self on the eleventh floor, their 'stop'.

She thought she heard him mumble something about being saved by the bell but rushed past him to enter the bullpen and escape the confines of the small lift, she looked at her watch to find that although the journey in the lift had seemed like forever it had in fact only been three minutes, she shook her head and sat beside Lou as Jack began the morning meeting. Lou gave her, her recent addition of a sly smile and looked pointedly at Danny opposite them.

Kat shook her head and just hoped that whatever happened during that day she didn't find herself in any small spaces with him, as much as Lou might want them to be!

* * *

Just a little Kat/Danny interaction for you Gold :-)... Hope the story is OK so far, I'm enjoying writing it and from the next chapter onm I hope it gets more "pacy" ... they will be getting the case within the next two chapters .. so... As I said R&R, tell me if it's OK. I hope it is!

K, x


	6. New Partners

**Author's note**: HI ALL! Life's been so busy, just logged on and thought I would add a little more. 2 Years - this should have ended now!

---

Kat shook her head and just hoped that whatever happened during that day she didn't find herself in any small spaces with him, as much as Lou might want them to be!

"Right, morning everyone, I trust you all slept well," Jack cleared his throat. "I've decided that Danny and Kat should, and will, be work together today." He looked around his team sitting at the table and explained his reasoning "They are sharing a major case and although it's hopefully been sealed up now and soon to be over, I still feel that..." He looked directly at the two in question "you two need to get to know each other; Martin, I'm pairing you up with Lou, I hope you don't mind?"

With the partnerships sorted out. Jack went on to tell the team that he wanted them to follow up some old paperwork, since they currently had no more new cases. Which, in turn, would help their two new members get to grips with the detailed logging issues required when on a hot case.

Jack slowly walked towards his office and hoped he was making the right choice of pairing up the only two members of his team that appeared to have taken an instant dislike to each other.

"derecho, deja para conseguir trabajar, entonces" Slowly Kat rose and walked towards Danny's desk and waited for her new partner to join her. In the minute that it took for him to realise she was waiting for him she tried to remember all of the reasons why inter-office crushes didn't work, the only reason that sprang to mind was because it was messy having to clean up the drool.

"Trabajo entonces está, pero podría nosotros habla por lo menos en inglés" Danny drawled back.

"Sure, whatever. I was just trying to lighten the tone... and you do realise you never did answer my question right?" enquired Kat.

"... and what question was that? " Danny looked questioningly at his new partner and he inwardly groaned at the thought of having to spend so much time keeping them both busy enough not to result in biting off her head.

"Will we often have days without a case?" she sighed, knowing he was not enjoying this time together.

---

**A/N **

"derecho, deja para conseguir trabajar, entonces" - should translate to "Right, lets get to work, then"

"Trabajo entonces está, pero podría nosotros habla por lo menos en inglés" - Work it is then, but could we at least talk in English


	7. The Case starts

**5:30pm - Uptown NYC**

Two young girls were walking down the street discussing their day at school. One was a short brown haired 12 year old and her friend was a taller blonder 13 year old.

"Sheeshhh! School's getting tougher. Wanna come over to mine? We could rent a movie ... copy each others homework. Have a laugh... how about it?"

"I can't, I promised my mum that we'd have quality 'mother – daughter' time tonight, and I really need to keep her onside." replied the blond haired girl.

**8 hours later**

"Hi this is Malone, we have a case. Meet me in the bull pen in 40 minutes"

Kat threw the phone down and groggily reached for her nearest item of clothing, hoping that it wasn't unprofessional. She laid her hands on what seemed to be a blouse and turned on her bed side lamp. She checked that it looked clean and threw it on. Dressing quickly in semi-darkness Kat allowed her mind to wander off. Wondering what the case would involve, if she would have to work with Danny and why Jack was giving her almost an hour to meet him. In her last job she would get a call and be expected to have been there 2 hours ago.

She picked up her phone and her hand bag and rushed out of her apartment, remembering to lock up after the spate of recent break-ins in her building.

She arrived at the FBI office 20 minutes later; shocked that there had been no traffic ... and that she hadn't been pulled over for speeding.

Finding Jack she apologised "Hi, sorry it took so long"

Jack looked to see who was talking to him, saw it was his newest agent and fired into an explanation of what they currently knew "That's OK we're waiting for Viv and Sam to get back from the victims home with more information. This is what we know. Mother arrived home around 6 expecting to spend some quality time with her daughter. Daughters name is Alicia Stone. She's 13 years old currently living with her mother but apparently the father's in the process for fighting for custody – and winning. Daughter's not usually one to not turn up when plans are made, both parents have spend the last eight hours calling every known friend and family member trying to find out where she might be. Eventually they called us in."

"Did they contact the school?" Kat asked expecting Jack to reply, but to her shock another voice took over.

"School ended at 3, we called the grounds but the caretaker is away so there's noone on site after school hours"

"That's great... so what ...so what do we do first" she stuttered, mentally berating herself

"You surely got the Malone speech when you started – right? Before we can find the victim – we need to get to know the victim... so we now search every available avenue in the next 48 hours to find her... and we've been partnered up again so we'll be going through her phone records together. I hope you've brought your reading glasses because you'll be needing them" Danny began to walk towards the large conference table in the middle of the bull pen while Kat looked at Jack for confirmation but he was gone, instead she saw the large white board – on it was a picture of a youngster who looked more likely to be on the walls of her school for winning "cheerleader of the year" than on a missing board. In the picture she looked happy it seemed to be a blown up family picture as the background looked as green as grass.

Kat walked towards Danny, where he'd pulled out a chair opposite him for her. She picked up the pages he dropped in front of the chair and began reading. After five minutes she had to speak.

"How do we know these calls aren't the parents?"

"Because Alicia has mummy and daddy wrapped round her little finger enough to have her own phone in her bedroom, these are those records... we'll go through the household phone records later – since this is her phone line, I'll bet the most important calls came to this phone."

"Does she have an answering machine? Should we not listen to that?" again Kat interrupted the silence.

"Viv, Sam and Martin are at the house, they'll do all of that we just have to find numbers that seem to be being called often or numbers calling often – think you can handle that? Or is it not exciting enough for ya'?" Danny mentally berated himself for taking his tiredness out on her. But every time he read a line she kept interrupting him and in the end she had got on his nerves.

Kat settled herself down for a night of reading and noticing different number after different number and in the end she went to her desk and got a large pack of highlighters. She thought to herself that she needed to do this her way and she began highlighting each number in a different colour – until she realised that one number kept popping up and she looked at Danny and asked him to read his frequent number ...

"704-8848, why'd you ask?

"Bingo, I've had the same number 23 times so far – should we call it?" excitedly Kat turned her page round to Danny, showing her multi-coloured page which did indeed have one colour continually popping up.

---

**A/N**

More soon hopefully :-)


	8. What happened next

Danny stared at the paper for a few seconds and then he had the urge to laugh. "You coloured it in?"

"Hey don't laugh- it's how I have to work – there has to be some method and anyway, it's much faster than staring at numbers – this way I can see a pattern" Kat was pissed. How dare he mock her systems? If it brings results it should clearly be welcomed.

Danny smiled – he could see why Jack had paired them. He liked how Kat thought – he just wasn't going to let her know that; "Look I'll call the IT guys they can trace that number so we get an address to give them a visit – maybe it won't be such a long night after all?"

**Twenty minutes later**

"Yeah Jack, I know… hmmm….. I see….. Well we'll pop round there and just check it out…. Okay…. Right….. then we'll meet up with Martin and Sam….Okay west 43nd street…. Got it… speak later"

Kat listened in to Danny's phone call with Jack - she wished he'd put it on speaker phone but once again he's being territorial about a case and Kat's just along for the ride. She grabbed her coat as she'd mustered enough from Danny's end of the conversation to realise that they would be going out into the cold.

"Ready?" Danny enquired as he grabbed his winter coat from the hook by his desk.

"As always… although next time care to join me in the conversation, partner?"

Danny walked towards the elevator - he wished they had time to take the stairs after their last encounter in the lift but time is off the essence in a missing case so he would just have to control himself and try not to make things too difficult between the two of them. He pressed the shiny silver button to call the lift and waited. Hoping Agent Hunter would calm down and realise not everything was a dig at her capabilities.

Thankfully the lift arrives a few seconds later and both climbed inside in silence "Good old FBI fast technology. I'll press the button – we'll take my car and you can navigate – how about that Agent Hunter?"

"I'm happy to navigate, if you will call me Kat – Danny! Are sure you want to drive – you look like you were out partying before this case stated?"

"That's off limits Agent H – we don't talk about personal lives but I am fine to drive – your life is safe in my hands. I promise"

Kat didn't doubt it; she could see his gun on his slender hip, reckoned he knew how to use it and knew that Jack had already said he was his best agent – not a title easily given in the F BI – as she well knew.

"As long as you think we can arrive alive, I'm happy. So you don't like to discuss your personal life? It's a good job I didn't ask you if you were married then, eh?" She gave Danny a sly smile as the lift opened at the underground basement and walked out ahead of him she looked at the choice of cars ahead of her and guessing his car was the silver one she walked towards it. Danny aimed his keys and opened the locks. She smiled at herself and was glad her guess was correct.

"How did you guess?" Danny has a quizzical look on his face.

"My car's the black one and red just doesn't suit you…. at least silver goes with everything…" Kat smiled as she climbed in the passenger side. She refused to dislike Danny Taylor. She had been alive for 26 years and disliking people was not in her nature. She was sure under his abrasive attitude and his petulant need to be in charge he was a nice guy. Sam certainly thought so at lunch yesterday.

She pinned in the address of the recurrent phone number into the sat nav and they set off to Williamsburg to meet the mystery caller. She hoped that it was just a school friend of Alicia and they were busy doing homework assignments via phone but deep down felt there would be more to it.


	9. the car journey

**Disclaimer:** _I own none of the original cast of WaT –however the characters 'Katinka Hunter' and 'Louise Palmer' belong to me, I created them and I would prefer if it you don't steal_! _Please. _

_A/N – sorry it's been a while – wanted to add some more!_

They drove in silence. Neither of them knowing what to say to each other. Deep down Danny knew it wasn't Kat's fault he had been taken off the Lopez case, he knew Lou and Kat were the right people for the job and the DA accepted the case – that's enough wasn't it? But there was a feeling Danny couldn't shake. For some reason he was angry at her and as much as he tried to work out why he just couldn't figure it out. She was beautiful and knew that she wasn't in anyway annoyed with him – she'd made that clear with the smiles she had given him but Danny knew not to let his guard down. He couldn't risk getting hurt. Not again.

He heard Kat clear her throat.

"You Okay? Want the heating higher? Or I could lower it?" he questioned.

"No – it's fine – but a bit of conversation would help?" Kat took a breath and looked out of the window watching as they passed houses, trees and late night revellers walking down the street, once the breath had been released she decided she had to say something – "I hate being awkward with my partner and you aren't very chatty – I'll tell you what we get through today – pretend we are friends and survive. Then tomorrow I'll ask to be assigned with someone else – that way you'll be happy and I might see a smile on your face for the first time since I joined the office. What do you say?"

Danny was shocked. He hadn't smiled? Not even since she joined the office? Everyone called him 'Easy' due to his smile… he was making her feel awkward? That was the last thing he wanted – he always prided himself on being easy going and liked that people could talk to him.

He slowed the car down for a red light and let out a soft moan and turned to look at his new partner and realised for the first time he had been a bit of a rubbish partner. It was a good job they hadn't got into a gun fight otherwise Kat may not have known whether to protect him or shoot him herself.

"Look I'm sorry I can see I have been a rubbish partner lately. It's jus-" the lights turned green and Danny began to drive off…

"Just that the Lopez case was close to your heart for you? - I know. I don't hold it against you but if we could be civil to each other so that I know that you at least like me enough to protect me – just like I would for you – it would help my nerve a whole lot more than it is now… and Danny?"

Danny wondered what Kat was going to ask him kindly he looked at her whilst he manoeuvred into the left hand lane "yeah?"

"Lou said you have a cute smile – would be good to see it one day!"

Danny burst out laughing and realised for the first time he liked Kat's sense of humour and was glad Jack had put them together.

"Well Lou has a good smile herself – make sure you tell her that was from me!"

The drove the rest of the way in silence, however it seemed less awkward, Kat messed with Danny's radio and found a station playing some dance music; maybe in a different place Kat would have started singing along or even dancing but thought it best not to embarrass herself for a few more days.

They arrived at the address 20 minutes later just as the sun started to rise.

"Maybe we should wait it looks like a family house – calling at half 5 in the morning is a bit of a shock?"

Danny considered it for a moment then decided it was no time but the present so they walked up to the door. Danny got his ID out and pressed the bell.

Moments later a youngish looking lady with blonde hair opened the door.

Danny flashed his FBI identity badge and started to speak, Kat flashed her own ID and stood back whilst watching Danny with fascination "Good morning Ma'am I'm Agent Taylor and this is Agent Hunter. We know it's early but we wondered if we could come in for a few moments. We're working on an important case?"


End file.
